1 [Report This]Date: August 04, 2024 03:41 pm Title: Chapter 1
This was hot, yet beutiful at the same time. Very well-written!
1 [Report This]Date: December 01, 2022 01:54 pm Title: Chapter 1
Wow, what a gem!
10 [Report This]Date: April 24, 2015 01:08 pm Title: Chapter 1
Angsty and sexy and perfect. Well done. You captured Jim and Pam and their Jim- and Pam-ness so incredibly well.
Date: May 08, 2009 08:49 pm Title: Chapter 1
Wow. This was awesome. Hot and funny and so sexy. I especially liked this line, where Pam tries to convince herself of what she's feeling:
"It's just want, she assures herself. It means nothing."
Very nice.
Date: May 03, 2009 04:54 pm Title: Chapter 1
I cannot believe I didn't review this, but everything colette wrote pretty much covers it.
Can I tell you how much I loved when Jim said, "I want to f*ck you" rather than some romantic declaration? Because that's what Pam would want from him at that point, and only subconsciously. She's still content with her life with Roy, and Jim's this cute guy at work who pays special attention to her. Her initial fantasies about him would definitely be along the lines of "I wonder what he's like in bed." It took Jim's blatant confession and many months and life changes after that for her to tell him her true feelings. ("I called off my wedding for you.")
Of course having her actually admit it to Jim would only make the tension between them even more tightly wound, since Jim's probably been imagining her naked since Day 1. He would of course use his trademark humor to diffuse the awkwardness in her presence, but I'm certain that once he went home, her dream confession would fuel his own fantasies.
Very sexy, and not at all outside the realm of canon possibility. Nice job, talkative!
10 [Report This]Date: May 02, 2009 10:04 pm Title: Chapter 1
It's funny how I get this surge of excitement when I see your name! You never fail- never!
Pam trying to be casual while holding Jim in her dream seems very true to 'life' for her. Wanting to hold him closer, but worried about him laughing her off as if she's a schoolgirl with a crush.
I know I'm repeating, but everything about this is sweet, pure, and um CARNAL
One more thing before I go (and if I remember, I'm going to put this in every review,) there is always one line out of every store that I want to continually! This story, that line is "Abraham Lincoln's head on a hot girl's body weird?" We're going to DC in a few weeks, so I HAVE to use it. It's destine!
Date: April 30, 2009 11:41 am Title: Chapter 1
This was amazing!
I think we sometimes overlook that she must have wanted him as badly as he wanted her, she was just unable to accept it as a real possibility. This was a nice glimpse into the denial she was always forcing herself into. I especially loved their conversation in the end and the way she thought he was so calm and collected, when in actually his brain must have been exploding after her confession, and it was just one more example of their miscommunication.
You just *get* these characters, which is probably why all of your stories are so darned amazing - this newest one is no exception.
9 [Report This]Date: April 29, 2009 08:20 pm Title: Chapter 1
oh, how fantastic. first of all, snaps to seal press for publishing some of the greatest writing out there, including inga muscio and... other stuff that i love.
with that out of the way - wow. i love the way you used summer heat as a character, or a set piece - something really evocative and familiar. i love that she tells him about the dream! and that he is cooly pleased. i love the way you write in small details, they add so much to the overall piece. there hasn't been a lot of fic recently that i've fallen for, but this is great. thank you!
Date: April 25, 2009 07:45 am Title: Chapter 1
What a great piece! Nicely written and with so much care and thought for Pam. The details are really nice - contrasting heat and cool, desire and duty, setting the perfect stage for dreams...
Author's Response: Aww... Sibilate, so good to see you here. Thanks for noticing my little game of contrasts. I'm not a fan of nagging authors to continue their writing once they've hit that completed button, but but but - The Night Picnic? Pretty please?
Date: April 25, 2009 07:13 am Title: Chapter 1
This must sound like it's an auto-reaction, but it's not - I love this. Here's a few reasons why: hooray for fics that acknowledge that of course Pam secretly had these thoughts about Jim, even back then; the feeling of an actual episode - the pitch perfect interaction with Kelly, Phyllis, Dwight, etc. And that's where this excels - it detours from canon (her admitting her fantasy to Jim) - but just enough, in a way that requires no suspension of disbelief. Bravo. Also, I LOVE how once she confesses her dream, Jim doesn't quite know what to do with that info himself, how he sort of lets her off the hook by telling her she shouldn't be ashamed (how perfect that he specifies he doesn't mean all people, he means her) - and makes it okay for her, with a deflecting joke. But, it's also clear he kind of stores it away in his mind. They're both so palpably in that unformed, embryonic zone here, still figuring out where the - sometimes uncomfortably tacit - borders are.
I'd start quoting lines to you, but alas...that would become an endless ramble. I did love their little exchange about Dwight's attire ( "He - you know what? Just wait for it." Hee!) Little bits like that made it seem so rooted in the show back then...as did the drink orders (each was so funnily character-specific)...and her perception of Jim's ease with himself...and the atmospherically sexy/intimate feeling of their sweltering walk to the coffee shop - that just so captured the flavor of how their most mundane time together could be so charged in those days.
Okay, so there's that disorganized ramble I promised not to do ;-) I'll end here, by saying your ending line It means nothing pretty much sums up everything back in that day.
Author's Response: Colette - I typed up a response and Firefox lost it, so let me see if I can reconstruct here... It always takes me a couple of days to find a way to respond to your thoughtful, generous reviews. Let's begin - of course Pam had these feelings about Jim and of *course* she was aware of them, even if wild horses couldn't drag it out of her. It's why she reacted so strongly when he touched her too much or for too long; why she delighted in his girlfriend's flaws; and why her reaction on CN was one of despair, not shock. She knew, she knew all along. And thank you for your compliments on that parking lot conversation - it's so so hard to know how much they would have said to one another at that point. I was concerned that Pam acknowledging her dream was too much, which is why I added Kelly's awareness of it as a complication - if she didn't tell him, someone would. I'm pleased with Pam's snowballing confession and with Jim's excruciatingly careful reaction to it. It was nice to see her let go, if only for an evening. And, yeah, I wanted to sneak away from canon without losing the possibility that this was... well, possible. Finally, you should know that I wrote that last line with you in mind. I've been fond of the less-is-more approach to final lines since I received your review of "By Night." "Nothing" is Pam's own barely tenable denial and our collective ability to see clean through it. Again, thank you so much. It always makes my day to hear from you. Cheers.
10 [Report This]Date: April 24, 2009 02:32 pm Title: Chapter 1
oh.
my.
god.
usually, I don't read S1 fic.
but wow, this was AWESOME (:
Author's Response: Technically? Technically? It's very-nearly-S2 fic, so I haven't made you abandon your principles. :) Thanks for the review, Mixed. I'm glad you liked it.
Date: April 24, 2009 11:27 am Title: Chapter 1
In a perfect world, we'd all have incredibly detailed dirty dreams about Jim.
This: "her arousal a hurt that she was impaled upon" is perfect in every way. Guh.
Author's Response: As long as Pam does it, I feel that everything is write in the universe. :) Glad you liked that line, lisa - I was rather pleased with it myself. Cheers.
10 [Report This]Date: April 24, 2009 10:58 am Title: Chapter 1
And now we will all have to make some paper fans. Coincidentally, I'm totally comfortable with cute girls thinking dirty things about Jim too.
I must read this collection of essays.
Author's Response: Correction - we all need to have Jim make us some paper fans. Enjoy the essays - given your writerly inclinations, I strongly urge you to take a look at "Women Writing Desire" by Ruth Knafo Setton in particular. It's a nice, chewy way to think about what we do when we write fic. I think it really freed me up/cleared my head for this one. Always good to hear from you, Annabel. Thanks.
10 [Report This]Date: April 24, 2009 10:35 am Title: Chapter 1
Slowing pulling myself up off the floor.
Lordy girl! First, I loved this hot little number so much that I'll be purchasing Desire as soon as I can.
The dream sequence is perfection--things slowly coming into focus and the loss of inhibition--just delicious.
"Did you know this was happening?" she asked, turning her head so the hair on his chest grazed her cheek. ... He was stroking her spine; long, lazy caresses that made her back arch and her belly kiss his. She pressed her thighs together as one of his big hands covered her bottom, pulled her closer to him. "What are you doing?" she heard her own voice in her head.
"I'm, um," by way of an answer, he turned them so she was on her back. His hand was in her hair, on her breast, and between her legs. He wasn't shy or tentative. He seemed to know her already, even as she marveled at how strange it felt.
Off the floor but now fanning myself.
Oh! And the conversation that they have at the end of the day was adorable and sexually delightful. I can see her fidgeting, his smirk and his sadness and the rapidly-moving thoughts running through his head. Also, I know I've said this before and I'll say it again--your characterization of Pam is amazing. I really like how you show her realizing her attraction to Jim and trying to figure out what it all means. While it's obvious to us that Jim and Pam are meant to be together, it's more complicated for her, and I love that you don't take her situation lightly. And I love her, how do I say this, realization of Jim as a man, rather than a nonsexual friend. He's deliberate, strong, and sexy in her unconscious and then later conscious thoughts. Just sublime! And hot.
Now, off to the bookstore.
Author's Response: Hullo WaW... :: extends hand :: Do consider checking Desire out from your local public library. It's what I did. Libraries with high circulation = happy Talkative. Please note that, despite how the title makes it sound, the book isn't wall-to-wall smut. Most of it is about other types of desire - religious, etc. One essay in particular was driving my sense of this story. It's called "Women Writing Desire" and it's by Ruth Knafo Setton. She writes "To me, desire hinges on the moment of recognition. The climax in a tale of desire - even more than sexual fulfillment - is the moment when the lovers see each other and accept what they see." I wrote toward that; toward Pam just barely beginning to accept what she's seeing, if only subconsciously, privately. I'm glad you like the conversation that comes near the end of the story - it was the part that required the most delicate touch and the most rewriting. It's always terribly difficult to gauge what Pam will admit and how Jim will react this early in the game. And, finally, I wanted my characterization of Jim in the dream she had to be her subconscious trying to point to what she already knows - that he does want her and does feel these things for her. Thank you so much, as always, for your kind review. Happy reading!
10 [Report This]Date: April 24, 2009 10:28 am Title: Chapter 1
Holy Moses. I'm breathless and amazed. This was a scorcher, Talkative. You have so perfectly, beautifully, wonderfully captured every character you touch upon, as well as the heavy feel of a hot summer day. This played like a real episode (if I had my way and TO were on cable...late at night). I love how clueless Jim is to his effect on his female co-workers. Thanks for that David Cassidy reference--very funny :) As with all your stories, I can't wait to read this again. *favorites*
Author's Response: Spring is dragging on a bit too long here, Nan, as it is wont to do, so I decided to write myself a little heat. :) I'm glad you liked it. Thanks so much for compliment on characterization - I do love dragging in as many of them as possible, just to let them wander around and see what they say (Dwight kind of surprised me with those shorts - I'm still recovering). Cheers.